Mexico City, Mexico — Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum signed a decree to issue secondary energy laws that restore Pemex and CFE as state-owned enterprises. The decree was signed Tuesday.
This means various provisions of the Law on the Mexican Petroleum Fund for Stabilization and Development are amended and various provisions of the Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration are amended, added to, and repealed, she explained.
Sheinbaum signed the decree to issue in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) eight secondary laws on energy matters aimed at recovering Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) as public companies of the State.
“The best tribute we can pay to General Lázaro Cárdenas (whom he recognized as one of the nation’s best presidents) and to the people of Mexico, then and now, is the publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation of all the secondary laws associated with the recovery of Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission.
“One of the most important things is the vertical recovery of the companies. That is what was done in 1992, separating Pemex with the goal of privatizing it, begins today. The vertical integration of Petróleos Mexicanos to strengthen its efficiency and performance, and as a public company of the Mexican State and a company of the people of Mexico,” she said.
With the signing of this decree, the following are enacted. The Law on the State-Owned Enterprise, Petróleos Mexicanos, the Law on the State-Owned Enterprise, the Federal Electricity Commission, the Electricity Sector Law, the Hydrocarbon Sector Law, the Energy Planning and Transition Law, the Biofuels Law;, the Geothermal Energy Law and the National Energy Commission Law.
Sheinbaum emphasized that these reforms reverse the privatization and dismantling process initiated by neoliberal governments, particularly with the 2013 energy reform.
“A development model was imposed, against the will of the Mexican people, that lasted until 2018, the neoliberal period, the dark period of our country’s neoliberalism.
“From then on, governments squandered the nation’s resources, sold off public companies, and also squandered oil, seeking at all costs the privatization and dismantling of Pemex. That’s when this desire for privatization began, which the Mexican people often opposed,” she recalled.
She said that during this neoliberal period, between 2000 and 2012, the highest oil surpluses were experienced which did not benefit the nation. On the contrary, oil production decreased by more than 400,000 barrels per day, the petrochemical industry was dismantled, Pemex’s debt doubled, reaching $106 billion and there were corruption scandals such as Odebrecht and the “moches” linked to the 2013 energy reform.
For this reason, she celebrated that in 2018, the people of Mexico changed the country’s history and, led by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, began the rescue of Pemex and the CFE as State-Owned Enterprises.
“The company paid off its debt. Petróleos Mexicanos actually paid off its debt and at the same time, it began increasing its production and recovering its refining capacity, as well as its fertilizer production capacity,” she added.
Pemex CEO Víctor Rodríguez Padilla reported that the recovery of this state-owned company is underway with vertical and horizontal reintegration processes, administrative streamlining, strengthening of operational tasks, budget control, rationality and efficiency, republican austerity, and rigorous investment selection.
He added that the Mexican government is promoting concrete actions to strengthen Pemex, such as the continuation of the Dos Bocas Refinery and the Tula and Salina Cruz coking plants; the natural decline of oil reserves has been counteracted, production has been stabilized and the cost per barrel extracted has been reduced.
Three new discoveries have been made with an estimated volume of 100 million barrels, new wells and opportunities represent prospective resources of 930 million barrels and a 60 percent increase in distillate yield in the National Refining System, which means Mexico now produces more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than fuel oil.
“Rest assured that we will make the most of the new legal framework to strengthen the company for the benefit of Mexicans,” he said.
